Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam via ScienceDailyAn international team of researchers has found, for the first time, seven risk genes for insomnia. With this finding the researchers have taken an important step towards the unraveling of the biological mechanisms that cause insomnia. In addition, the finding proves that insomnia is not, as is often claimed, a purely psychological condition.READ MORE

News-Medical.netNew research has found empathy may have a genetic component that also influences personality, cognition, and psychiatric conditions. Further, although not a novel finding, researchers noted women generally performed better on a test used to gauge empathy than their male counterparts. READ MORE

WIREDTeaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana — the third largest hospital in Africa — houses two radiation machines for treating cancer patients. Both are relatively new, purchased by Ghana’s Ministry of Health in the last few years. Both produce powerful X-rays that can penetrate your skin to kill tumor cells in your body. People from all over Ghana, even outside the country, come to the hospital to use the machines for cancer therapy.READ MORE

The Associated Press via U.S. News & World ReportKen Shefveland's body was swollen with cancer, treatment after treatment failing until doctors gambled on a radical approach: They removed some of his immune cells, engineered them into cancer assassins and unleashed them into his bloodstream.
Immune therapy is the hottest trend in cancer care and this is its next frontier — creating "living drugs" that grow inside the body into an army that seeks and destroys tumors.READ MORE

Healthcare IT NewsThe future of healthcare is not a device or a drug thus far undiscovered. No, it’s digital and that’s no surprise — but it’s not nearly as simple as today’s digital health.
Rather, forward-looking hospitals including Mount Sinai, LifeBridge Health and Thomas Jefferson, in fact, have clinical innovation teams working on digital medicine projects.
READ MORE

Harvard Business ReviewFor critically ill patients on breathing machines, a simple step drastically improves their survival chances by almost 10 percent — from 60 percent to 70 percent. It involves programming the machine to deliver enough life-sustaining breaths, but not so much that it damages their lungs by overinflating them.READ MORE

NBC NewsA lot has changed in medicine since the first human organ — a kidney — was successfully transplanted into another human in 1954. But one part of the transplant process that hasn't changed much since then is how the organ is delivered from donor to recipient. Basically, organs still travel via cooler.
An organ is first removed from the donor and flushed with a salty preservative solution. It’s then put on ice and sent to a hospital where the recipient is waiting.READ MORE

Medical News TodayA combination of vitamin C and antibiotics could be key to killing cancer stem cells, a new study finds, paving the way for a strategy that could combat cancer recurrence and treatment resistance. Researchers found that a therapy involving the antibiotic Doxycycline and ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, was up to 100 times more effective for killing cancer stem cells than 2-DG, a molecule currently being tested as an anti-cancer agent in clinical trials.READ MORE

NPRResearchers are working to revive a radical treatment for Parkinson's disease.
The treatment involves transplanting healthy brain cells to replace cells killed off by the disease. It's an approach that was tried decades ago and then set aside after disappointing results.
Now, groups in Europe, the U.S. and Asia are preparing to try again, using cells they believe are safer and more effective.READ MORE

MedscapeAll of Us, the Precision Medicine Initiative that aims to revolutionize the path to improving health, has launched its beta phase, according to Program Director Eric Dishman.
In a video announcing the launch, Dishman said on Tuesday, "This has been a long time coming, but it's a huge milestone.READ MORE

HIT ConsultantBreast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. In 2017, it is estimated that more than 250,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with new cases of invasive breast cancer. That’s why the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has partnered with Tempus on a personalized cancer medicine initiative aimed providing most effective care for individuals diagnosed with breast cancer.READ MORE

McKnight's Long Term Care NewsPost-acute care spending dropped by 9 percent — or about $106 per beneficiary — without a drop in quality, a study of accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program has found.
Success relied on clinicians working within skilled nursing facilities and hospitals directly influencing care for ACO patients, rather than focused use of “preferred” SNFs or broad hospital initiatives, researchers found.READ MORE

Healthcare DIVEProvider organizations have formed some major health players, such as Kaiser Permanente, Geisinger and UPMC, but the report found that more recently-formed health plans are having issues. The finding isn't particularly unexpected. Providers that have bought health plans, such as Banner Health and Catholic Health Initiatives, have reported they are responsible for hits to their bottom line.READ MORE

FiercePharmaBiosim makers scored a big win Monday as the Supreme Court ruled with Sandoz in a much-watched legal dispute with Amgen. The landmark decision, set to leave a distinct mark on the budding field, allows biosim makers to give marketing notice before FDA approval, meaning their products can launch faster.READ MORE

Popular Science‘FDA approval’ has a certain glow of authority to it. In most people's minds to be FDA approved is to be safe, effective, and proven. Or at least, it technically is. Technically, FDA approval is a stringent process that requires a degree of proof. You might like to think that you couldn’t get away with claiming something went through that process if it never really did. But you’d be wrong.READ MORE

Kaiser Health News via NPRIn his high-stakes strategy to overhaul the federal health law, President Donald Trump is threatening to upend the individual health insurance market. But if the market actually breaks, could anyone put it back together again?
The question is more than theoretical. READ MORE

ReutersAnthem Inc, which has urged Republican lawmakers to commit to paying government subsidies for the Obamacare individual health insurance system, on Tuesday announced it would exit most of the Ohio market next year.
The high-profile health insurer, which sells Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states including New York and California, for months has said that uncertainty over the payments used to make insurance more affordable could cause it to exit markets next year.READ MORE

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Join Zitter Health Insights’ (ZHI) research panel and earn honoraria - paid directly to you or to your favorite charity. ZHI provides innovative insights that help optimize patient access to pharmaceuticals. We work for and with life science companies, specialty pharmacies and managed healthcare organizations across the US. For nearly 30 years, our syndicated research and expertise have helped customers solve market access challenges. This research helps IDNs exercise greater influence over how the pharmaceutical industry approaches and interacts with them. We are recruiting IDN executives to participate in our research and your knowledge is paramount to providing key stakeholders with insights into the challenging issues involved with pharmaceutical access. We look forward to your participation in this important dialogue. Yes, I’d like to learn more and participate!

CVS Health today announced the company will launch Reduced Rx™, a prescription savings program that will offer discounts on certain medications – through CVS Health’s pharmacy benefits manager, CVS Caremark – directly to patients. The program will help patients with high out of pocket costs afford essential medications. Novo Nordisk will participate in the prescription savings program. Through this program, CVS Health and Novo Nordisk will offer Novolin R®, Novolin N® and Novolin 70/30® human insulin at a cost of $25 per 10ml vial, which reflects a potential savings of as much as $100 for cash paying patients. Click here for more information.

Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. is a rapidly emerging biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative therapies utilizing the Medici Drug Delivery System™ – therapies that have the potential to transform the prevention and management of serious chronic diseases. Across chronic diseases, medication non-adherence can compromise clinical outcomes and drive excess cost to the healthcare system. Intarcia is working to address this problem through innovative technologies. We invite you to visit our website to learn more.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued positive guidance recommending the use of the HeartFlow FFRct Analysis to help determine the cause of stable chest pain in patients. The HeartFlow FFRct Analysis is the first non-invasive technology to provide insight into both the extent of coronary artery disease and the impact that disease has on blood flow to the heart, aiding clinicians in selecting an appropriate treatment. Please click here to view the full press release.

Last month, Novo Nordisk received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the New Drug Application (NDA) for Xultophy® 100/3.6. Xultophy® 100/3.6 is a combination of insulin degludec and liraglutide, indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus inadequately controlled on basal insulin or liraglutide. The FDA has required Novo Nordisk to distribute the safety notice as part of the Xultophy® 100/3.6 REMS program. Click Here for the Letter. Click Here for the fact sheet.

Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc., an innovative molecular information company focused on providing genetic diagnoses for neurological conditions through next generation sequencing, offers a broad range of genetic testing panels for epilepsy, including recently-added epiSEEK® Spotlight Panels designed to target genes that have been reported in association with specific phenotypes for epilepsy and seizure disorders. Please click here for more information.

Based on published clinical data, Humana, Medical Mutual of Ohio and Preferred One independently determined and published policies stating that Biodesix’ VeriStrat® test can be considered medically necessary for patients with advanced NSCLC. The VeriStrat test provides physicians with prognostic and predictive information to inform treatment of advanced NSCLC, and can facilitate patient-physician conversations about prognosis, life expectancy, and treatment recommendations. Click here for more information.

The treatment cost for colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in the U.S. is approximately $14 billion a year and is projected to rise through 2020. To help managed care professionals more effectively analyze medical and pharmacy claims, Bayer has developed the “Treatment and Analysis of Colorectal Cancer Evidence” (TRACE) Analyzer. Click here for more information and who to contact.

In a recently published study, researchers demonstrated that the DecisionDx-UM gene expression profile test accurately predicts metastatic risk for uveal melanoma patients and is being used by physicians to appropriately guide patient care decisions with the ultimate goal to improve net health outcomes. Please click here to review the full press release.